Sunday, December 11, 2005

Time To Fly South? Or East? Or West?

"By God, King, what is Mario Lemieux doing?"

Well, in a move that was years in the making, Mario Lemieux has turned heel. He joins the pantheon of French-Canadian heels, right up there with Mad Dog Vachon, the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, Dino Bravo, and Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

The two-time saviour of the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise has said that there's a "slim chance" that the Pens will stay in Pittsburgh past 2007. Unless this is a simple negotiating ploy, then Mario appears to be willing to turn his back on the franchise he saved as a player in the 1980s, and as an owner in the 1990s. Said Lemieux:

We probably ran out of time already. It's been unfortunate that the city and the county haven't been willing to work with us over the last two or three years.

I can empathize with Number 66. After all, if I were a legislator in the City of Pittsburgh, I'd have spent the past 3 years bending over backwards to build an arena for a team who's league was headed for, then engaged in, an indefinite lockout. Now, not even 6 months after the lockout has ended, the Pens sound ready to explore a move in time for the 2007-08 season. According to the espn.com story, the hockey hotbeds of Kansas City and Houston will likely come calling, but I'm hoping they'll consider Hartford.

I am happy about the Miami game only because it means that the Pats can't slide in at 8-8, and because Brady is my fantasy Qb and I need him for the playoffs.

The Giants looked awful today againts the Eagles. The Bucs beat the Panthers, the Bears showed that outside of the NFC they suck, and the Bengals barely beat the Browns. God, other than the Colts, there is no team that I can predict to win with any certainty. I really don't feel comfortable with saying that the Seahawks are the second best team in football.

The Bengals were playing a classic letdown game coming off the win over Pittsburgh last week. They're a young team, and will have games like this. Ditto for the Giants, who won't go anywhere in the playoffs - not because they lack the talent, but because they don't seem capable of playing at a high level 2 weeks in a row.

Maybe the Bucs are better than any of us thought. The Cadillac had a great day. and Chris Simms had a good game too.

How about the performance of Peyton Manning and Chris Simms? They're coming through big in the clutch now, which is great because they're notable as the 2 biggest big game chokers from the past decade of College Football - Manning for going 0-4 against Florida and losing the Heisman race to Charles Woodson, and Chris Simms for going winless against Oklahoma, and continuously getting yanked in big games in favor of Major Applewhite.

And yes, I made that last point just so I could count my second Major Applewhite reference of the day, even though I'm pretty sure the only regular readers who remember him are my dad and the armchair quarterback. I guess I'll have to drop a Scottie Thurman reference at some point to keep Sacamano interested.